Customer Reviews

How to Succeed in Heaven Without Really Dying

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sometimes a book you've never heard of comes your way, and when you read it, it takes you by surprize. This is such a book. I read some of the reviews on Amazon and was intrigued, so I ordered a copy.

"How to Succeed in Heaven Without Really Dying" may not be a great literary masterwork. The writing style is amicable, even eloquent at times, but it lacks refinement and occasionally -- as does the story -- lapses into clumbsiness. McDaniel isn't in same league as Charles Adams, whose influence is easily apparent in the story, but perhaps such comparisons aren't fair. But what his novel lacks in refinement it more than makes up with charm.

McDaniel does succeed in creating some wonderful characters and clever situations, laced with a hilarious and occasionally sick and twisted sense of humor. The book's first act showcases blistering comic shenanigans, but with a lead character who is both pitiful and more than a bit annoying, the first few chapters are a challenge to flip through, even if the book is relatively brief.

The setup is this: Micah is a New York businessman, whose miserable life has made him more than a bit cynical. After a failed suicide attempt, Coltan, a supernatural "agent for the afterlife", comes 'round to collect Micah's soul. The problem: Micah isn't dead yet, and so begins a tug-of-war between the natural world and what lies beyond.

Act I has funny moments, but its sole purpose seems to be describing the severity of Micah's miserable existance. Yet once Coltan enters, things pick up considerably. Coltan ranks as one of the most sadistic and entertaining characters in recent comic fantasy, bumbling and moronic at times, charming and sinister at others. Think of him as a cross between Gollum and your typical fast-talking Wall Street broker from hell.

Micah's attempts to correct his ways are surprisingly refreshing (particularly because he fails in spite of his best intentions), and the introduction of Micah's guardian angel, Christine, brings in a romantic subplot that is both humorous and touching.

But the shortcomings of the book's first half are more than redeemed in the second. Realizing not just that his life is worth living, but that he has been, in fact, his own worst problem all along, Micah's change of heart makes him much more endearing, both to the other characters and to the reader.

The supernatural elements to the story are sporatic -- Coltan pops up every now and then, enlivening things up with morbid glee. Filling in the holes are some truly wonderful subplots: Micah's relationship with the insensitive, bullying uncle who raised him (whom he later learns is dying), and a nurturing friendship with a young deaf boy. These fragmented storylines, added to a fostering romance between Micah and Christine (in the novel's weakest scene, our hero has sex with his guardian angel -- bet Frank Capra never saw THAT one coming), would normally give such a novel an episodic, uneven tone.

But, daring to use a biblical pun, the last act is a revelation. McDaniel does the unthinkable here: he takes the scattered, fragmented parts to the story and throws them all together in a truly rousing climax that is greater than the sum of its parts. It's funny, exciting, poignant, even SCARY, with some big surprizes and nice twists that even this normally jaded reviewer didn't see coming. (Readers will take particular delight with the novel's epilogue... A CLASSIC.)

Hardly a classic, but fun and giddy just the same, "How to Succeed in Heaven" is a notable work, certainly worthy of the short time one takes to read it. If "Bruce Almighty" can be a movie blockbuster, than this heavenly novel deserves an audience, too.

Probably 4 stars for more mature readers. The author sent me a galley copy of this book for review.

The basic story's a simple one. A young man, orphaned as a child, haunted by unexceptional experience, loss, solitude, is suicidal. After an attempted suicide he encounters a metaphysical being of the negative genre, makes a deal of the not- exactly- traditional- Faustian variety to continue with life a while. Our hero then discovers an angel, who's been watching him all along, and becomes something of a pawn in the struggle between two vague forces, a tug-of-war for his soul, his future, his manner of dying.

The plotting is fast-paced, characters are well developed and amusing, dialogue is mostly crisp and well handled. The book is a fun read, and although the author clearly intended a higher message for it, I don't believe it's entirely successful in that regard for mature humans faced with suicidal tendencies, depression and the dark closed vessel life sometimes becomes for many people.

That's the reason I've chosen to rate this book as 5 stars for young adults. I believe it might be mildly helpful as a thought-provoking read with energy, entertainment and an understanding of some of the mysteries of life for young people just beginning their stroll along the tight-rope. The theme might seem slightly frayed on the edges for more sophisticated readers.

If you're anything like me - and I know I am - then at this time of year, either in the midst of or just after the holidays, you are stressed to one degree or another. You're tired, and a little fershimmeled, and not prepared for anything to make great demands on your time or your mind. In short, you're in the mood for a diversion, something that's fun and funny and full of heart, easy to follow and hard to put down. If you fit this description, then Adam McDaniel has a story he'd like to tell you.

How to Succeed in Heaven Without Really Dying (which I gave two stars on the basis of the title alone) is the tale of Micah Cohen, a grown-up orphan with a lot of problems. Most of them stem back to the accident that claimed his parents when he was a boy. Micah nearly died in that accident as well, and is convinced that he survived only as a result of some form of divine intervention, in the form of a red-haired girl who may or may not have been an angel. Micah isn't sure, and it's that uncertainty which is the hardest thing for him to live with.

Flash forward to the present: Micah is a young professional stuck in a dead-end job at a monolithic company in New York City, depressed and tired of slugging it out day after day against a world that seems indifferent at best, actively antagonistic towards him at worst. He decides to end it all - and by making that decision, Micah sets in motion a chain of events that include guardian angels, agents of Death, miracles, disasters, lies, half-truths, and even a few genuine surprises.

That's a lot to pack into a couple of hundred pages, and it's pretty ambitious for a first-time novelist to even attempt - even more so when you consider that McDaniel's novel is a comedy. Yet McDaniel pulls it off with a fair degree of proficiency. The humor is based in whimsy rather than insult, which I find refreshing, and I got many smiles and several genuine laughs out of the story. McDaniel has a gift for witty dialogue that I found very enjoyable.

However, the novel is by no means perfect - there are moments that are off-putting, or contrived, or both - and at some points the story and characters both seem a little weak. Sometimes McDaniel tries too hard for his jokes, as in the case of the corporate monolith Micah works for, improbably named Macchiavellian Foods. Sometimes McDaniel doesn't try hard enough, as in the case of Micah's failed suicide, which wants to be uproariously funny but comes off as barely chuckle-producing, and even a little pathetic. Somehow, I don't think that was the reaction the author wanted.

There is also the much thornier question of theology - this is a story set at Christmastime, dealing with guardian angels, with a Jewish protagonist who winds up (SPOILER ALERT) falling in love with, and sleeping with, his guardian angel. Devout Christians and Jews alike may find this offensive - I didn't per se, but I did find myself wondering how germane the love story was to the larger tale being told. It adds little, and is actually something of a distraction from the overall arc of the plot. It feels tacked-on, as if McDaniel felt it necessary to add the love story in order to provide a little spice to the proceedings. It's daring, to be sure, but it raises theological issues with the reader that McDaniel may not have intended, and which as a result go unaddressed. However, this is a comedy, not a dissertation, so perhaps it isn't entirely fair to expect McDaniel to wrap everything up quite so neatly.

The novel is at its best in its second half, as Micah goes about the business of redeeming his wasted life - McDaniel has a much surer sense of what he's doing here, and provides the reader with several scenes that make you smile and tug at your heart. He isn't afraid of sentiment, or of the occasional big gesture of the type Frank Capra used to make in his movies (an interesting notion I'll return to in a moment), and it is in these scenes that How To Succeed In Heaven finds itself. The story builds nicely to its climax, and for a good while you're unsure if the light at the end of the tunnel is the sun or a train. The ending is a little predictable - the cover of the book itself is something of a giveaway - but how McDaniel arrives at that ending is clever enough to fool you.

Overall, How To Succeed In Heaven Without Really Trying is a good first novel, an entertaining story that's well-told for the most part, and which reads like a good though not exceptional Hollywood movie. (In fact, I suspect this may be a converted screenplay, as it does a lot of its work through visual imagery.) I mentioned Capra in the last paragraph, and the story contains several Capraesque elements, especially its gentle sense of humor, and its firmly-held contention that one man can indeed make a difference in the lives of those around him. The novel has its flaws - including a subplot about a child-porn bust that has little to do with the main story - but most first novels have flaws, and if the story is good enough I'm inclined to overlook them. That's the case here. I found McDaniel's novel to be an ideal diversion at this stressful time of year, and I hope that you will too.

There have been many works that play with the ideas of a literal instantiation of Death, guardian angels, and a less-than-perfect heaven. Some of these works have been good, some not so good, and some just plain bad. This one belongs in the good box.

McDaniel brings some strong characterization in the form of Micah Cohen to this dark, sometimes humorous, and frequently satirical work. At the beginning, Micah is shown as a man with low self-esteem, with no confidence in his own ability to change even little things in the world. His job is one that would fit perfectly into a Dilbert world, from cubicles and meaningless reports to bosses without a clue. In fact, he is so down on himself that he attempts suicide. Being what he is, however, he can't even do a good job of that, much to the distress of Death's assistant Coltan, who shows up after the bungled attempt, carrying a day planner, highly upset that Micah has not died on schedule.

After this, Micah decides to break out of his daily routine, to live for the moment and do things right. Now the fun really begins, as he finds his guardian angel Christine, whom he'd unknowingly met earlier moonlighting as a whore, romance blossoms, and the fight is on between Christine and Coltan over Micah.

As one might surmise from the above, this book is not for those who can't take their religion with a grain of salt and a willingness to laugh. Buried behind the laughs are some serious thoughts about the real purpose of life, what gives a person a 'soul', how to approach living each day as it comes, and humanity's strengths and weaknesses. These points grow out of the story, rarely directly pontificated, and don't slow down the pace of the story, but will cause a pause upon completion of this book for some serious reflection.

The opening of the book is a little slow, not really picking up an obvious direction and tone until about thirty pages in, and McDaniel's prose style is nothing special, but once into the meat of this book, it reads quickly and easily. And other than Micah, who grows and changes throughout the book, the other characters are pretty much set-pieces, with no real depth to them. This is not as bad as it sounds, as the basic plot requires at least one character to remain very much a blank, and several others really and properly are only spear-carriers. But I would have preferred to see some greater depth to Christine, and I think such greater development would have allowed for a few more satirical digs to be implanted.

The satire is this book's strength, often laced with irony, and even with an occasional lapse into slapstick. Great fun for those willing to put aside any ingrained beliefs and go with flow, with a nice payoff upon completion.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

After a slow and not-so-engaging start, Adam McDaniel kicks it into high gear in his debut novel, HOW TO SUCCEED WITHOUT REALLY DYING. By the halfway point, I couldn't put down this amusing and well told story about a man who argues with death's representative, meets a guardian angel dressed as a prostitute, and discovers the meaning of a good life.

Micah Cohen's parents died in a horrible accident that would have claimed Micah's young life as well if not for a child-angel who breathed life back into him. Despite this second chance, Micah has grown into a miserable, self-pitying man with a dead-end job. When he incompetently fails in a suicide attempt, he meets "Death's little helper" Coltan, a man with a day planner and an attitude who is furious that Micah didn't die on schedule. When Coltan sets another appointment with death for later that day, Micah obliges. But by the time the moment arrives, too much has changed inside Micah - and the story really begins.

Because his premise is somewhat trite, perhaps even sophomoric, McDaniels has his work cut out; however, he mostly rises to the challenge to deliver some genuinely human and amusing moments. Unfortunately, when he goes too far (or not far enough), he ruins his own illusion. One thing is certain: McDaniel knows how to tell a story. You won't be yawning during the climax of *this* novel.

Most of the characterization is so-so, but Coltan is an ingenious creation - he gets more laughs than any other character. Although the writing flows, never getting in the way of the plot, it seemed too pedestrian, too careless for a novel. (McDaniel's bio says he works in film and stage, which may explain his inattention to the demands of narrative prose.)

A few things REALLY bothered me about the edition of the book I read, although I didn't deduct rating points for them: the book was bound so close to the inner margins that it was often difficult to read the end/beginning of lines; "all right" was consistently misspelled as "alright"; and ellipses, which are frequent in this book, were incorrectly represented as three tight periods (...) instead of ". . .", which any competent editor should catch. I know these points seem niggling, but they did distract me.

All in all, though, McDaniels shows real storytelling talent and a penchant for irreverent humor. He has written a memorable book that deserves to be read. Although I couldn't give this book four stars, it really deserves more than three. I give it three and a half stars.

This is a first novel for Adam McDaniels and definitely has some rough edges to be worked out.

The story is a comedic dark fantasy.

The story centers around Micah Cohen. A diligent prole working for Machiavellian Foods Inc.
Stuck in a dreary workaholic's paradise. McDaniels paints a very good portrait of a man with
very low self-esteem. Micah's work life isn't right. Belittled and dragged down by corporate
life as well as eeking out a lonely life in a rundown apartment. Life for Micah is dreary and repetitive
without much change or success. Even an attempt at an innovative resignation, to get back at the boss, ends in a
failure of some sorts.

Tired of the failures in his life, Micah decides to end his life, but even that ends in failure, but opens Micah's eyes
to something completely different. Coltan. Coltan is Death's daily planner carrying assistant.
Abrupt and to the point, he pushes Micah to complete the deed of committing suicide.
Micah on the other hand starts to turn his life around after meeting his guardian angel Christine.
From there, the story turns into a battle for Micah's life and soul between Christine, Coltran and Micah himself.

The story has some pros and cons to it.

First off the pros to this novel:

The character building and treatment was pretty dead on with Micah. Adam McDaniels did a wonderful job bringing such a depressed individual to life.
After reading the first few chapters, even I was starting to get depressed at Micah's dreary life.
Also the circumstances of Micah's turn around from a person with very low self-esteem and outlook to someone that is
self assured grew at an even pace as the story unfolded. One of the toughest aspects of telling a story is keeping the pacing. Adam
McDaniels did a good job at keeping that pace of character building and growth as the story progressed.

The humor bordered on the slapstick, there were a few funny comments made. One of my favorites concerns Christine talking with
a fellow colleague McCormick about how she has her hands full with Micah. His response got a chuckle out of me when he said, "Think you've
got it bad? Try looking after a 7-11 cashier with a midnight shift in the Bronx, for Christ sake!"

The cover. The cover doesn't add much to the story, but McDaniels did paint the cover himself. He is quite an accomplished artist, which I
can't say for many writers in the field.

The cons to this novel:

The story has a very non-christian approach to the meaning of life, God, and salvation. Granted the story is a dark fantasy, but people with strong Christian
beliefs may have a problem checking those beliefs in at the door when they read this book. McDaniels treats salvation being attained
from the good deeds you do instead of seeking forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

Introduction of minor characters needed some work. A little more time could have been spent with developing Micah's boss and Catherine
Brandis. Both are very minor characters in the book, especially so with Catherine's character, but I'm not sure the reason for having Catherine's
character in the book. She didn't really add much to the story for the exception of pointing out the mystery behind Coltan's character. Yet
the readers would have been able to figure out Coltan well before getting to Catherine's comeuppance.

The humor. As I stated above, the humor sported on the slapstick, but I felt what some of the humor was forced or weak in some aspects.
Definitely not on the level of Terry Prachett, or Douglas Adams.

For a first novel, How To Succeed was a so-so attempt. McDaniels is definitely a talented writer, and I'm sure as he perfects
his writing craft, we'll be seeing stronger and more thought provoking novels in the future.

Funny in a really weird, offbeat way. Though a bit too sentimental at times and uneven in tone.